Sooner or Later
by royslady51
Summary: She had nothing but grief and memories as the years turned into Ages. Each year on the Anniversary of the Good-Bye, she visited Bad Wolf Bay to purge the grief for another year's passing...because sooner or later this Universe would tell her why she was still alone. One Shot


Sooner or Later

Every Year she came down to Bad Wolf Bay, to the same stretch of beach, to mourn what she had lost.

Every Year she had more to mourn, more losses, more grief to purge and more regrets.

Every Year Rose Tyler came out of hiding on that one day and she purged her soul of it's pain for another little while...as the Earth aged and took it's people with it...and she remained as she was.

She did not age, her. She hadn't aged since Satellite Five and she lived in a universe where she had no Time Line, where there was nothing keeping track of her, nothing marking her passage through it...and no one who even knew she existed. There were no Time Lords, here...never had been, actually, so Rose didn't expect anyone to ever notice anything odd about her on her yearly forays down to the beach...until one day, _someone did_.

He was an old man who felt very young to her senses...and he couldn't seem to take his eyes off her. That was fair since she was having the same problem. Five thousand years, relative time, after she had lost her Doctor, she found him again in the eyes of an old, old man...and she smiled at him. This allowed him to approach her.

"You are very strange." He told her.

"Hello to you, too." She greeted him, laughing quietly. "Yes, I know. Actually, I'm far stranger than you realize."

"What's so funny abuot it?"

"I'll answer that...after I find out who...and what...you are, sir. You're not human, that much I can see. I know the soul looking at me and the last time I saw you, you wore pinstripes. But...you're no more native this universe than I am. So..."

"I am the Doctor...and I assure you that I _am _very much native to this universe. Not sure when we came into existance really, we know that one moment we were not here and the next we were. Until now, there was no one to tell us how we got here." His voice was a bit hoarse and rough but she ignored that, sliding over a bit on her rock to make room for him. "Our world is ancient...but not our place in this universe though I was loomed a long time after we got here."

"Long time, relative or TARDIS time?"

_"How did you..."_

"Doctor...can you hear the echoes of future selves?"

"Yes, of course."

"Can you draw out your Tenth? Let me speak to him. I need to find something out and then, my dearest Doctor, we need to talk."

"I can..."

"I rode with the Doctor of my universe after his Gallifrey was destroyed. He was the only Time Lord left...and was on his Ninth regeneration. I stayed with him after he went to Tenth...and got seperated and trapped here, in this universe. I need to see if there's been a Time Accident of some sort...and you're too young to answer the questions I need to ask, as you currently are."

He stared at her, but brought his Tenth up where she could see him...and he her.

"Hello, Rose."

_"What did you do?"_

"Me? _Nothing_. A blackhole swallowed the vortex..."

"And spat you out here, _okay_. And before you ask, Bad Wolf is why. Now, explain it to First and tell him I want to come home. Five thousand years is a long time to live in a cave while your world devolves around you. I think I'm the only near human left. As to why I was laughing...not so young anymore, am I? But I _am _quite bored."

The internal conversation between the Doctor's First and his Tenth answered most if not all of Gallifrey's questions...and allowed the First to understand that the strange woman belonged to _him_, ultimately. It also allowed him to regain the memories of the first time around.

"I've restarted on the rounds of Lives. They're all past, Rose." He finally told her. "When the Blackhole swallowed the Vortex, all that had been _there_, began again _here_." The young Doctor explained.

"Well, at least there's no Daleks here. Cybermen, yes, Daleks, no." She told him.

"That's good. You're coming, aren't you?"

"When did you start asking dumb questions...or is that a First Body thing?" She slide off the Rock and turned to help him down. "Have you chosen a New Gallfrey yet?"

"No, that's what this trip was for. Despite only having the one sun, it will do nicely. Where are we?"

"Pete's World. The humans here devolved, as I said. I invite you to bring your folks here to live...I'm currently the only resident and I'd rather be on the TARDIS." She met his surprised expression. "Yes...alter-earth. Of course, when the people devolved, they had to land the zepphins, so there are none blocking your view of the sky. Looks like wilderness on old Earth, doesn't it? Doctor...this is Bad Wolf Bay...you're in what was once Norway."

"Ahhh."

"Humans are on the low ebb of their evolutionary cycle. They go, apparently, from ape to human and back to ape, regularly. Just now, Baboons are the most intelligent ones and they've less fur with every generation. In a few more million years..." She shrugged. "But your people can make allowances for that and guide them into a less idiotic path, if you live here."

"Yes. It will be a good rent to pay, I think. To guide them back and fourth until they settle on one or the other."

"I knew when your 13th died, you know. _She _came to me and settled, just over there." She pointed at a spot on the top end of the beach's north side. "And she planted hundreds of coral shards before she stilled, her door open for me...and she was my home for more than three thousand years. Flightless and rather quiet, but she lived. And then, she left one day, when I was out hunting. She set up a very nice cave for me before she left...and I now I have to assume that was when you lot got here and found a universe with no one looking after Time in it."

"Yes. She sat in one of the Fields, I'm told, until I was old enough to need a TARDIS and then she came for me. My very first assignment was to come here...and do you know? She's settled in the same place and started cleaning out a cave of all that lay within it. Fair confused, I was."

"She better be a police box again, when I get back up there. Traditions of that sort are better maintained, Doctor." She told him as she scooped up her day bag and held out her hand for his. "Well, you're not really fit to run, just now...but this time I know what's going on and there's no need to leave, is there? I'll get to keep you this time."

He took her hand in his withered old paw and squeezed it gently. "Yes, you will."

"Still don't have a Time Line here, do I?"

"No...but we can fix that."

"Bind it to your _own_, this time, Doctor. Braid them together."

"Rose."

"Don't argue with me, I've waited long enough."

"Jack's on the TARDIS, you know? Didn't understand why there was a stray human...even an immortal one...living with us, but now...I'll braid the three of us together if you are willing."

"The family is back together again, we three. Of course I'm willing. And he and I will make sure that each body lasts better than they did the first time around."

"I'm sure you will."

"Good. Take me home, Doctor."

"Very well then, come along, Rose Tyler."

** FINIS **


End file.
